I have always been intrigued by how the ancients created their gods and goddesses to interact with humans and the natural world. The clever way they transformed their relationships and adventures into myths, attempting to explain fundamental questions about how the world began and the mysteries of nature, life, death, and the human condition, plus advice on how to behave, still resonates through the ages. To distinguish gods from humanity, people endowed them with superhuman capabilities, including power over nature and the mortal world, magical abilities, and immortality, staging them alongside interesting human characters. One of these was Daedalus, an inventor, architect, and sculptor who served as a personification of technological progress and the creative genius of the Bronze Age Minoan civilization of Crete. The story of his outstanding achievements offers valuable lessons for modern innovators, inventors, and big businesses — should they be inclined to heed them.

In our high-tech age, we are constantly presented with new technologies and innovations promising to improve our lives in an exciting, but mythical, future. Alas, these wonders are often marketed for short-term profit with insufficient regard for future consequences, as seen with nuclear energy, fossil fuels, and plastics. Scientists acknowledge that new technologies, such as nanotechnology and artificial intelligence, will pose significant problems, even threatening life on Earth. Supporters of these new technologies fear we will miss out on the massive benefits they may bring, and, despite the risk, believe we should boldly forge on regardless.

Modern transhumanists and posthumanists propose making radical artificial changes to our physiology and cognition, aiming to transition from human to transhuman to posthuman, hoping to gain God-like powers and experience. Fears are that they are hurrying toward their goal with insufficient control and supervision, worrying many experts. With all this mind-boggling science and its possible dangers, could we learn a thing or two from our ancestors, whose mistakes and successes shape us into what we are today?

From the distant past, the story of Daedalus illustrates that the ancients explored concepts such as human flight and biological hybridization, as well as their potential implications. Although his story is taken to warn against hubris and defiance of the gods, it also cautions against the danger of failing to apply foresight, discipline, and good ethics in developing and implementing new technology. Many people today feel uneasy about these new and upcoming technologies, such as artificial intelligence and drones. Too often, we find a dark side to their production or use, which is covered up to protect profits and the hint of problems. The story of Daedalus cautions against employing new technology without fully understanding its potential consequences. Even more so when it radically alters our biology and enhances or extends physical capabilities, giving us new, or even God-like, abilities. 

Plato claimed that Daedalus created statues so lifelike they could walk, invented numerous tools, and made improvements to sailing ships. But when he created an artificial cow, he became a link in a series of ominous events unwittingly initiated by King Minos of Crete that would lead to personal disaster. This stemmed from a broken promise to Poseidon to sacrifice a magnificent white bull but instead substituted a lesser one, an act of hubris, warranting divine punishment. Poseidon caused Minos’ wife, Queen Pasiphaë, to be filled with an uncontrollable lust for the white bull. To help her fulfil her passion, Daedalus created a realistic artificial cow with a space inside for her, resulting in her giving birth to a Minotaur, a hybrid creature with the body of a human and the head of a bull. 

King Minos had Daedalus build a labyrinth to confine the Minotaur, who was considered an abomination, forcing Athens to send him seven young men and maidens to sacrifice to the beast. Theseus, assisted by Daedalus, killed the Minotaur, ending the human sacrifices. Minos, realizing Daedalus had helped Theseus, confined him and his son, Icarus, in a tower as punishment. Seeking escape, Daedalus made two pairs of wings from wax and feathers, warning Icarus that flying too near the ocean would allow moisture to cling to the feathers, making them too heavy for flight. Alternatively, by flying too high, the sun would melt the wax, loosen the feathers, and cause the wings to fall apart. Father and son took to the skies, but overcome with youthful exhilaration, Icarus soared ever higher, ignoring his father’s instructions. The sun caused his wings to soften and fall apart, and he plunged to his death in the sea. His father, taking a safe middle flight path, could only grieve for the rashness of his son. 

On one hand, Icarus symbolizes humanity’s potential for disaster when carried away by untested, exciting technological innovations. On the other hand, it demonstrates that innovative technical enhancements to humans can succeed with proper safeguards, planning, and discipline, as shown by the successful and safe flight of Daedalus. Icarus’s death resulted from a chain of events stemming from King Minos insulting Poseidon. Daedalus became entwined in  the chain by enabling Queen Pasiphaë to perform an unnatural act, resulting in the Minotaur’s birth. Being highly intelligent he probably should have foreseen that King Minos would put the creature to evil use. He should have known helping Theseus would lead to his own imprisonment, leading to the escape flight and his son’s death. 

The story reminds me of the dangers of flying too high, too soon; as humans, we can easily become carried away with the excitement borne of novelty, leading instead to disaster. Lasting success lies in applying forethought, recognizing risks, and taking a sensible, disciplined path of action. The mating of Queen Pasiphaë with the bull warns against interfering with nature and the human condition without a thorough understanding of the possible dangers that may result. Through its portrayal of human ingenuity and technology overcoming human limitations, the ancient story of Daedalus warns of the risks of applying new technology without understanding the possible implications and dangers that may be unleashed and weighing whether such risks are acceptable. Shouldn’t we instead take these technologies wing by wing, step by step, bite by bite, and bot by bot?